War Cry 18 February

WAR CRY

Picture perfect

Will ‘delightful’ animation win at the Baf tas?

Ukrainian refugee finds support from Salvation Army

What is The Salvation Army?

The Salvation Army is a Christian church and registered charity seeking to share the good news of Jesus and nurture committed followers of him. We also serve people without discrimination, care for creation and seek justice and reconciliation. We offer practical support and services in more than 700 centres throughout the UK. Go to salvationarmy.org.uk/find-a-church to find your nearest centre.

What is the War Cry?

The Salvation Army first published a newspaper called the War Cry in London in December 1879, and we have continued to appear every week since then. Our name refers to our battle for people’s hearts and souls as we promote the positive impact of the Christian faith and The Salvation Army’s fight for greater social justice.

WAR CRY

Issue No 7615

Editor: Andrew Stone, Major

Deputy Editor: Philip Halcrow

Production Editor: Ivan Radford

Assistant Editor: Sarah Olowofoyeku

Staff Writer: Emily Bright

Staff Writer: Claire Brine

Editorial Assistant: Linda McTurk

Graphic Designer: Rodney Kingston

Graphic Designer: Mark Knight

Email: warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk

The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Territory 101 Newington Causeway London SE1 6BN

Tel: 0845 634 0101

Subscriptions: 01933 445445 (option 1, option 1) or email: subscriptions@satcol.org

Founder: William Booth

General: Brian Peddle

Territorial Commander: Commissioner Anthony Cotterill

Editor-in-Chief: Major Julian Watchorn

WHEN the National Gallery was opened in London in 1838, the aim was to make the art on display accessible to everyone.

With free admission, the less well off in the East End could walk to Trafalgar Square, while the rich could arrive in their carriages after a short ride from the west. However, for those living further afield, getting to see the exhibitions would be more of a challenge.

But that is not the case today. Online visitors are now able to scroll round a virtual exhibition from the comfort of their homes, wherever they are in the UK or around the world. The Fruits of the Spirit digital exhibition features paintings – gathered together from various galleries – that reflect the qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These positive attributes, listed in the Bible, are known to Christians as the fruit of the Spirit.

In an interview in this week’s War Cry, the Rev Dr Ayla Lepine, who helped put the exhibition together, tells us: ‘What makes our exhibition really innovative and new is that the space is not based on the National Gallery or any other museum. We invented it from scratch.’

While the exhibition may be new, the qualities the artworks represent have been extolled for years. However, Ayla hopes that the paintings chosen will help people engage with the concepts in a fresh way.

To that end, the pictures are accompanied by written reflections from, among other people, a nurse, a Methodist minister, asylum seekers in London and a community group carrying out environmental work in Devon.

‘Each of them,’ Ayla says, ‘has something to say about the importance of that biblically rooted experience of the fruits of the Spirit.’

Whatever their own beliefs may be, most people would agree that the qualities depicted in the exhibition are very much needed in our world today. And the good news is that God makes the fruit of his Spirit available to everyone, regardless of who they are.

INFO INFO

Front-page pictures: BBC AND SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

THERE will be lights, cameras and plenty of entertaining action when the 2023 Bafta film awards are broadcast on BBC1 tomorrow (Sunday 19 February). As scores of glammedup celebrities get ready to hit the red carpet, numerous accolades for acting, directing, special effects and screenplay-writing are up for grabs.

While much of the focus tends to be on the nominees for best actor and actress – including, this year, Colin Farrell and Cate Blanchett – one of the lesserknown categories is that of British short animation. This year, a 30-minute cartoon entitled The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse has been nominated for the award. Based on the illustrated book by Charlie Mackesy, the story follows a lost boy who befriends some animals while looking for home.

In the frame

A story about a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse is in the running for a Bafta

Feature by Claire Brine

apparent right from the story’s beginning, when the mole asks the little boy what he wants to be when he grows up. ‘Kind,’ comes the softly spoken reply.

Later, another question tugs at viewers’ heartstrings when the boy asks the horse: ‘What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever said?’ His answer is quick and clear: ‘Help.’

As the story unfolds and the boy and his animals travel along a riverbank in their search for home, they face obstacles that they must overcome. At one point, there’s a fierce thunderstorm, halting the progress of their journey. The group huddle together in the woods for comfort, where the horse offers some timely advice.

They face a fierce thunderstorm

‘When the big things feel out of control, focus on what you love, right under your nose,’ he says. ‘This storm will pass.’

drowning in hopelessness.

However bleak our circumstances appear, help is always at hand. If we have the courage to put our faith in God, he promises to help us weather any storm.

Broadcast last Christmas on BBC1 and still available on iPlayer, the colourful animation attracted largely positive reviews for its enchanting artwork and heart-warming script. ‘This tale of love and hope is half an hour of unmitigated joy,’ said The Independent. ‘Delightful’ was how Radio Times reviewed the story.

The sentiment of the short film is

He may be a talking animated horse, but his words to his friends are wise. And they resonate with viewers because they are true.

We know what it’s like to feel that life is out of control. When battling personal storms – at home, with our health or at our place of work – we may find ourselves wondering if our turmoil will ever subside. Sometimes we can feel as though we are

In the Bible he says: ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. For I am the Lord your God’ (Isaiah 43:2 and 3 New International Version).

It’s a promise that we can afford to trust, again and again.

Whatever difficulties we encounter on our journey through life, we don’t have to travel alone. When we put our faith in God and ask him for help, his love will strengthen us. His peace will calm our fears. And the reality of his presence will bring us hope, every step of the way.

WAR talkTeam talk

‘j TEA M TALK

Survey counts on Christians

Claire Brine gives her take on a story catching the attention of War Cry reporters

CENSUS data has revealed that just a third of people in England and Wales aged 26 and under identify as Christian, prompting the Church of England to seek new ways to ‘connect with Generation Z’, according to The Times.

Responding to figures from the 2021 census, which show that approximately 34 per cent of that age group see themselves as Christian (and 46 per cent claim to have no religion at all), Humanists UK was quoted as saying that the country now faces a ‘non-religious future’.

Meanwhile, the Church of England’s head of evangelism pointed out that reaching young adults with the gospel is one of its ‘key priorities for this decade’.

Younger adults were more likely to pray

‘We know that younger people today are less likely to have been brought up in the Christian faith than in the past,’ said the Rev Dr Stephen Hance. ‘But while they may be less familiar with its message, that doesn’t mean they are less open to faith.’

Stephen makes a valid point. Despite declining numbers of young adults calling themselves ‘Christian’, I believe that there are many young people in the UK today who are interested in exploring who or what God is.

Last year a Church of England survey revealed that younger adults were more likely to pray than the older generations, with 32 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds saying that they had prayed to God in the past month, compared with 25 per cent of the over-55s. At the time, Stephen commented that such figures challenged the ‘all-too-common assumption that young people are not interested in faith or spiritual things’.

Though I’m no religion expert, surely the reality is that, whatever the latest numbers say, no survey can ever measure how people truly feel about faith in their heart. Some people may not tick a ‘Christian’ box when filling in a form, but they may live a Christian lifestyle by loving their enemies. Others may never set foot inside a church but find themselves praying every day for the world to be a better place.

I’ve always believed that calling yourself a Christian isn’t the factor that automatically makes you one. Living like Jesus and accepting that, through him, you can have a relationship with God is what really counts.

’A welcome home for refugees

A NEW initiative is finding hosts who can provide housing for refugees and asylum seekers in desperate need, reports Christian news website Premier.

Welcome Churches, a charity that helps churches to welcome people seeking refuge in the UK, has launched Welcome Homes, which aims to find landlords and hosts who can offer people short and long-term housing.

The charity says that increases in demand for social housing and in prices in the rental market have resulted in many refugees and asylum seekers becoming homeless or living in halfway hotels.

Emily Shepherd, joint CEO for Welcome Churches, said: ‘Many of these people have come to the UK to escape war or terror – and now they are facing homelessness in a country where they should be safe. They desperately need a movement of compassionate landlords and hosts who are willing to rent to refugees.’

nA CONVERTED minibus in Devon is helping families who are struggling to cope with the cost of living.

Visiting community centres and church car parks for five days a week, the bus project is run by church group Torbay United in partnership with community interest company Asend.SW and with government and council funding.

Organisers said the bus project, nicknamed ‘YUM’ (which stands for ‘you + us = more’), would provide discounted food for people who were ‘not currently being supported’. The project was awarded £120,000 as part of the government’s Faith New Deal pilot fund launched last year.

WAR CRYWnRLD

Church leaders unite for ‘peace mission’

THE Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope and the Church of Scotland Moderator joined together for a ‘peace mission’ to South Sudan, reported the BBC. The pilgrimage – which focused on urging South Sudanese clergy to speak up against national injustice – marked the first time in Christian history that leaders of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Reformed churches conducted a joint foreign visit.

The Most Rev Justin Welby, Pope Francis and the Right Rev Dr Iain Greenshields met the country’s president, Salva Kiir, and spoke at church services, where they urged people to work for peace.

In its online reports, the BBC explained that since the country became independent in 2011, South Sudan has been racked by civil war. Despite a peace deal in 2018, violence ‘driven by ethnic tensions has continued’, and more than 400,000 people are estimated to have died as a result of the conflict.

Bench marks ‘loving memories’ of Gogglebox stars

THE Salvation Army’s Strawberry Field site in Liverpool has installed a memorial bench to pay tribute to two former stars of Channel 4’s Gogglebox, Leon and June Bernicoff.

The couple, who found fame in retirement through their regular appearances on the reality TV show, worked at the Gateacre School in Liverpool, teaching a number of pupils who lived at the former Salvation Army children’s home. They also would visit Strawberry Field with their own children over the years, for Bonfire Night and Christmas celebrations.

Unveiled in a small ceremony attended by Leon and June’s family, the memorial bench will be a permanent feature at the site, which today operates as a visitor attraction and a training hub for young people facing barriers to employment.

‘Through their work as teachers, Leon and June provided hundreds of local children with vital opportunities through education,’ said Major Kathleen Versfeld, mission director at Strawberry Field. ‘Our Steps at Strawberry Field programme today helps young people to access employment, so it seems fitting that their memory should live on here at a place they often visited.’

Designed and made by Peter Lavin, a trainee on the Steps programme, the bench features a plaque that says: ‘In loving memory of our parents, grandparents Leon and June Bernicoff, for whom family meant everything. Inspirational teachers who found fame as pensioners.’

In addition to providing young people with training opportunities, Strawberry Field operates as a visitor attraction, featuring an exhibition that explores the history of the site and how it inspired John Lennon to pen the Beatles hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

The Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, Pope Francis and the Most Rev Justin Welby in South Sudan

Helen Hunter and Julie Bernicoff, daughters of Leon and June, sitting on the memorial bench

Leon and June Bernicoff

‘I couldn’t believe the

Next Friday (24 February) will be the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. OLEKSANDRA HROMOVA remembers how she and her mother fled the conflict in its first few weeks with the help of The Salvation Army, and describes the support that the church and charity has given them

Interview by Emily Bright

IN the 12 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed or injured in the conflict. At the time that President Vladimir Putin’s ‘special military operation’ began, Oleksandra Hromova, was a member of The Salvation Army in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Oleksandra was among those who were forced to flee their home in the early weeks after the invasion.

‘I couldn’t believe that the war had started,’ she recalls. ‘I woke up at 5am, and I heard something weird. I had a friend who used to work in the police, with good connections with people in government, who sent a message saying: “It’s started.”

‘Our government kept saying it’ll be over in two weeks. So I thought: “OK, I’ll wait for two weeks.” I was able to work from home, but I was really scared all the time. We were protected by land, but from the sky you never knew, and I lived in an apartment building on the eighth floor.’

During those frightening days, Oleksandra received support from The Salvation Army’s Dublin City Corps – or church – which she had been a part of during a gap year in 2019. While she was there she had discovered more about

the Bible, prayer and preaching and had worked at The Salvation Army’s family hubs.

Oleksandra remembers: ‘When the war started, I received so many messages from my church community in Dublin, saying: “Do you need any help? If you want to come over, we’ll find a place for you to stay.” They were so welcoming and kind.’

Two weeks later the war was still going on. Members of The Salvation Army in Dublin were encouraging her to leave and travel to the Republic of Ireland. But the decision was not a straightforward one to make. Initially her mother, Yuliia, did not want to leave.

‘My grandma, too, didn’t want to go anywhere, because her home was built by her father,’ says Oleksandra. ‘I couldn’t go without them.’

As the conflict heightened, however, her mother decided that she and Oleksandra should leave Ukraine.

‘One day my mum came back from work, and she told me: “We have to go.” We just took one backpack and one small bag. There weren’t many places in the train. There were five or six people to each bed, and we had to all squeeze in there with our stuff.’

Oleksandra and Yuliia fled at a time of heavy bombardment.

‘The journey was supposed to be 15 hours, but Russian forces started bombing the place where we had to go through,’ says Oleksandra. ‘It took us 20 hours to get to the point where we took a bus to the border. Then we walked to the border, which took three hours. But we were lucky, because I’ve met people who waited for the train for five days.

‘When we crossed the border, there were already buses for us, and they brought us to the refugee centre in Poland. We took a flight from there after three days. It was really hard to buy flights anywhere, and the website said there were only two tickets left.’

The Salvation Army booked the tickets for them and on their arrival in Dublin, Oleksandra and Yuliia received further help.

‘Major Eleanor Haddick, a chaplaincy officer, lives in a Salvation Army-owned house. She offered for us to stay with her.’

The church and charity also provided Oleksandra with a welcome distraction from thinking about friends and family back in Ukraine and what was going on there.

‘The team offered me a barista position

Oleksandra Hromova

I was really scared

war had star ted’

at the hub café for one day a week,’ she says. ‘Volunteering with The Salvation Army was an easy decision, because I felt I needed to do something and keep busy.’

While she tries to keep her mind off the conflict in her homeland, she says that she has had internal battles with her faith since Russia’s invasion.

‘My faith helped me a lot, but I struggled too. My non-Christian friends asked: “Why does God let this war happen?” And I said: “I’m not God. You can ask him!” On the other hand, I understand that God is with me. He can protect my family, and I know that I’m not alone.’

While Oleksandra would like to head back home to Ukraine when it’s safe to do so, she has found a community that she greatly values in her Salvation Army corps.

‘I can’t say that my corps is just a church,’ she says. ‘It’s a family. And I like it here in Dublin. When I came back, I felt that I never left.’

Oleksandra now volunteers in The Salvation Army’s hub café in Dublin

Life still with fruit

THE creators of a new type of National Gallery exhibition are using digital technology to bring together paintings from hundreds of years of art history and explore themes from a 2,000-year-old letter.

The Fruits of the Spirit exhibition allows online visitors to wander round virtual rooms and look at works of art – some in the National Gallery’s own collection, but others hanging elsewhere in the country. Each painting has been chosen for its connection with the attributes listed by the early Christian Paul in his Letter to the Galatians – now part of the Bible – and described by him as being a consequence of divine love, ‘the fruit of’ God’s Spirit.

Over the past few years the National Gallery has staged a number of virtual exhibitions in collaboration with digital experience company Moyosa Media, giving people remote access to works that hang in the rooms of the physical gallery in London.

‘What makes our exhibition really innovative and new,’ says one of the curators of Fruits of the Spirit, the Rev Dr Ayla Lepine, ‘is that the space is not based on the National Gallery or any other museum. We invented it from scratch. We wanted it to be an in-the-round, transcendent kind of space, open to the sky, with a series of what are effectively side chapels.’

Each of the ‘side chapels’ and the virtual gallery’s central sections contains a pair of paintings and is dedicated to one of the attributes that make up the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Ayla helped put together the exhibition while working in a fixed-term art and religion role at the National Gallery, before she took up the post as associate rector at the nearby bricks-and-mortar

transcendent space of St James’s Church, Piccadilly. When we meet at the church, Ayla talks about the paintings in the exhibition.

Some of the works are explicitly religious, while others, she says, hold their message about the fruit of the Spirit ‘just below the surface’.

In the room devoted to ‘peace’, for instance,

‘Scenes from the life of Saint Martin of Tours’, c 1928–33, by Winifred Knights, and Claude Monet’s ‘Water-Lilies’, after 1916 (opposite page), explore the fruit of ‘peace’

A digital art exhibition being staged online by the National Gallery is exploring an ancient list of positive attributes. Co-curator the Rev Dr AYLA LEPINE talks about the collection of paintings and how their themes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control continue to speak to people

Interview

by Philip Halcrow

We wanted it to be a transcendent kind of space

PHILIP HALCROW

Co-curator the Rev Dr Ayla Lepine

Scenes from the Life of Saint Martin of Tours by Winifred Knights, depicting the soldier-turned-monk Martin, is displayed next to Claude Monet’s Water-Lilies, one of the series of images that Monet painted during the First World War and described as ‘a monument to peace’.

The room is also typical of the exhibition in the way that it looks at its particular theme from more than one perspective. Visitors who read the labels about the paintings, listen to the audio guide and open the digital catalogue can discover not only the historical background of the Knights and Monet paintings but also the response of a modern-day refugee, who talks of finding peace in the love that he feels from God, his foster family and a refugee support network.

‘Normally in catalogues you have art historians writing very interesting things about Michelangelo or Raphael,’ says

Ayla, ‘but the catalogue for Fruits of the Spirit does more.

‘For example, for the section on “gentleness” in the exhibition we have a Gainsborough painting from the gallery’s own collection, The Painter’s Daughters with a Cat, with the girls looking very sweet and cuddly together, and we have put it together with a contemporary

painting from Southampton City Art Gallery, Couple by Lizzie Jones, who was reflecting on words of the Book of Isaiah in the Bible about people turning swords into ploughshares and who painted two people who had been through the hardship of a civil war yet whose sense of love together radiated out.

‘So in the catalogue Susanna AveryQuash, who curated the exhibition with me, writes an essay about the Gainsborough painting; there’s also an essay by Jemma Craig from Southampton City Art Gallery about Couple from an arthistorical point of view; but then there’s a text that was produced by Jemma and the artist when they visited some Quakers to explore the meaning of gentleness.’

The Fruits of the Spirit exhibition includes the reflections of, among other people, a nurse, a Methodist minister, asylum seekers in London and a community group engaged in environmental work in rural Devon.

‘Each of them,’ says Ayla, ‘has something to say about the importance of that biblically rooted experience of the

Turn to page 10 f

‘The Painter’s Daughters with a Cat’, probably

c 1760–61, by Thomas Gainsborough has been paired with ‘Couple’, 2005, by Lizzie Jones in the virtual exhibition

SOUTHAMPTON CITY ART

GALLERY

© THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON

© THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON

fruits of the Spirit and their manifestations in everyday life.’

As a priest – who came to faith through pursuing an interest in the connection between Christianity and the arts – Ayla has been aware of the apostle Paul’s teaching on the fruit of the Spirit for years. But the exhibition has helped her see the subject in new ways.

about one of the fruits – for example, what “self-control” might look like.

We were thinking about Earth justice

‘When we were putting the exhibition together, Susanna, other National Gallery colleagues and I would sit down and think

‘I wanted to use Turner’s painting Rain, Steam and Speed because I started to wonder whether we could think about selfcontrol in a slightly different way. We were working with the Box, the art collection in Plymouth, which was wondering how to highlight recent acquisitions. That’s how Ben Hartley’s picture of a rural lane in Devon came together with the National Gallery’s

Turner. We were thinking about selfcontrol in a way that connected it with the urgent issue of Earth justice and climate change.

‘In this sense, self-control is a kind of theological imperative only to take as much as you need and to refrain from doing harm.’

In the exhibition, Turner’s 1844 painting, which depicts a Great Western Railway steam train hurtling along the track just behind a speedy hare, hangs alongside Devon Lane, Westlake, painted in 1968 by Ben Hartley, who would often walk and cycle round the tranquil landscape.

Ayla says: ‘Personally, I had never thought about self-control in that way, and so looking at the paintings was a little epiphany for me. And I don’t think I could have got to it without having those conversations about the relationship between the theme and the works of art.’

Another pairing that she found fascinating is the one explored in the room devoted to ‘kindness’.

‘My colleague Susanna

JMW Turner’s ‘Rain, Steam and Speed – the Great Western Railway’, 1844

‘Devon Lane, Westlake’, 1968, by Ben Hartley

© THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON

THE BOX, PLYMOUTH

noticed that the novelist Henry James wrote: “Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.” She has connected it with Eugène Delacroix’s painting of Ovid among the Scythians from the National Gallery, because it’s about a group of people who were taking care of someone who is abandoned.’

Ayla and her colleagues decided to place the painting of the imagined scene in the life of the exiled Roman poet Ovid alongside the depiction of another scene from roughly the same era. It shows the moment when, at his arrest, Jesus heals someone whose ear had been cut off in the turmoil.

‘It’s very unusual in the history of art,’ notes Ayla, ‘because paintings normally focus on the betrayal and the arrest of Jesus – yet Christ Healing the Ear of Malchus shows this luminous act of utter, pure kindness, even in the midst of this shocking violence.’

In helping her to see the individual fruit in a new way, the variety of paintings has added to Ayla’s understanding of God’s Spirit.

‘If we were to think about all 18 paintings in the exhibition together at the same

time, the first thing I would notice is that they show that the fruit of the Spirit is wildly diverse – that we cannot fully know and certainly cannot control what the Spirit is doing. As the Bible says: “The wind of the Spirit blows where it blows.”

‘And I think that when we see two works of art together like Titian’s image of The Virgin Suckling the Infant Christ with Jewish artist Ernst Neuschul’s painting Black Mother of a mother and child on a park bench in 1930s Berlin, it expands our idea of the fruit of the Spirit in terms of who we are and what we can be as humans and together with God’s love.

‘It was significant for Paul – and it is significant for me – that love is at the beginning of his list of the fruit of the Spirit. Love comes first.

‘There’s something about communitybuilding at the heart of this exhibition. And in the approach to the paintings there’s also something about radical love – of God, yourself and your neighbour.

‘I hope that when people visit the virtual gallery, they can access that sense of the Spirit moving within us.’

l Fruits of the Spirit can be seen at nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours

‘Christ Healing the Ear of Malchus’, c 1615–50, Circle of Louis Finson

‘Black Mother’, 1931, by Ernst Neuschul is exhibited next to a Titian painting of Mary and the infant Jesus

MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

Love is at the beginning of Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit

THE BOWES MUSEUM, BARNARD CASTLE

THE War Cry invites readers to send in requests for prayer, including the first names of individuals and details of their circumstances, for publication. Send your Prayerlink requests to warcry@salvationarmy.org.uk or to War Cry, 101 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BN. Mark your correspondence ‘Confidential’.

jBecoming a Christian

There is no set formula to becoming a Christian, but many people have found saying this prayer to be a helpful first step to a relationship with God

Lord Jesus Christ, I am truly sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong.

Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free.

Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me for ever.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Amen

Walking with Jesus

Behaviour

WHEN considering this subject, it’s essential to understand one thing: we are not loved more if our behaviour is exemplary, and we are not loved less if it’s not. This has to be stated because to some people the word ‘Christian’ is a substitute for ‘good person’.

In reality, a Christian is someone who has entered into relationship with Jesus, not someone who is necessarily a ‘good person’. Some people are naturally more helpful, thoughtful, giving and generous than others. This natural kindness can be more to do with nature and nurture than faith. So ‘Christian’ and ‘good person’ aren’t the same thing.

God loves us whether we are considered good or bad. He loves us whatever our reputation and whatever our past, present or future actions. He loves us because he is love.

We didn’t earn his love; we always had it, and we can’t lose it. Christian behaviour can be summed up in one word: love –love God, love ourselves, love others. No judgement, no ego, just love.

Now, it may sound difficult to love like this, but the great news is that we don’t have to somehow create this love – God pours it into us. The journey into this love is progressive; we grow and change gradually over time, from the inside out.

As we become more and more aware and welcoming of God’s presence in our lives, we change. We don’t change so we can be loved more; rather, we are changed as we grow in recognising and living in God’s amazing love for us.

As we grow in depth with God, what people read as behaviour – kindness, love, humility, patience and so on – will naturally grow. So we can relax in the confidence that the more we get to know God, the more our decision-making, thought processes and actions will reflect him.

To

a

Name

Address

When we first explore Christianity, we may have lots of questions. In this series, some of the basic principles of the faith are explained The journey into love is progressive

QUICK QUIZ

1 2 3 4 5 6

ACTION PANS

Faith is a vital ingredient to Pancake Day traditions

Feature by Sarah Olowofoyeku

Who did Anthony Eden succeed as British prime minister?

In which coastal town was novelist Agatha Christie born?

Since 1977, the World Snooker Championship has taken place in which city?

What is deoxyribonucleic acid more commonly known as?

In the UK version of the board game Monopoly, how much money is traditionally collected for passing ‘Go’?

How many legs does a lobster have?

F

LIP hip hooray – it’s nearly Pancake Day! Whether they are topped with chocolate spread and bananas, salted caramel or lemon and sugar, the batter-mix-turned-flat-treats are sure to delight the many people who will be indulging in them on Tuesday (21 February).

As well as cooking and eating pancakes, people in some parts of the country will be having fun with them. Businesses in Reading have been invited to take part in a Pancake Day race, in which they have to flip pancakes as they make their way down a route – in fancy dress.

In Scarborough, competitors in the town’s annual Pancake Day race will need to polish off an obstacle course while holding a pancake in a frying pan. Down in Olney, where the Pancake Day race is said to have originated in 1445, female residents will dash the short distance through the town, kitted out with frying pans, aprons and headscarves.

People used up all their fatty foods

Legend has it that the tradition began in the town after a housewife who was making a pancake heard the church bell calling people to a service and hotfooted it there with the pan in her hand.

While the race’s origins might be the talk of the town, sometimes less is said about Pancake Day’s roots in Christianity. Known also as ‘Mardi Gras’ and ‘Shrove Tuesday’, the occasion marks the last day before the Christian season of Lent.

The name Mardi Gras – the French for ‘Fat Tuesday’ – alludes to the fact that people used up all their fatty foods such as meat, eggs and milk before a period of fasting. And the name Shrove Tuesday comes from the Middle Age practice of shriving, which is a confession of wrongdoings, in preparation for Lent.

Lent is a 40-day period during which many Christians give up something they enjoy. They do so to focus on their faith and follow the example of Jesus, who fasted before beginning his work, which ended in him giving up his life for us.

Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, Christians aren’t obliged to observe rituals such as Lent – although they can be beneficial. All God requires of us is to run to him and receive the gift of his love and forgiveness, which will turn our lives around.

Quick

CROSSWORD

12. Perplex (8) 15. Consistent (7) 16. Card

Look up, down, forwards, backwards and diagonally on the grid to find these pancake toppings

P Q W D N M A P L E S Y R U P H K B

Y H T V X H V W G F D T J N M F L Z T D R E L Q Z P T B V

L W V T O N A N E F L N V Z

Macaroni cheese

SERVES 4

MONEY WISE MEALS

EQUIPMENT

Scales

Measuring spoons

Measuring jug

Small pan

Medium pan

Chopping board

Vegetable knife

Grater

Large pan

Wooden spoon

INGREDIENTS

700ml full-fat milk

350g macaroni

50g butter, plus a little extra for greasing

50g plain flour

175g mature cheddar cheese

1tsp English mustard

Salt and pepper

50g Parmesan cheese

50g coarse white breadcrumbs

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

Pour the milk into a small pan and heat to almost boiling. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

Cook the macaroni until al dente according to the packet instructions. While the pasta is cooking, grate the cheeses and grease an ovenproof dish. To make a roux (which is flour and fat cooked together and then used to thicken sauces), melt the butter in large pan. When it starts to foam, add the flour and cook on a low heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain using the colander, then place the pasta under the tap, adding a little water, and stir, to help prevent it from sticking together.

To finish the sauce, slowly stir the warm milk into the roux until smooth. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring often until the sauce has thickened and has a coating consistency.

Remove the pan from the heat, then add the cheddar and mustard. Season with salt and pepper, if desired, then stir until the cheese has melted.

Mix the cheese sauce through the macaroni to coat it well, then tip into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs over the top and place in the oven.

Bake for about 15–20 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling. Serve with a crispy salad.

Recipe provided by the Victory Programme

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